Jerry Brown Sells Out Too

Michael Tobis, editor-in-chief of Planet3.0 and site cofounder, has always been interested in the interface between science and public policy. He holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences where he developed a 3-D ocean model on a custom computing platform. He has been involved in sustainability conversations on the internet since 1992, has been a web software developer since 2000, and has been posting sustainability articles on the web since 2007.

Another politician from whom one might expect better slides down the slippery oil-greased slope. Following the distressing posture of Justin Trudeau which we mentioned recently, we see similar behavior from California Governor and erstwhile Zen student Jerry Brown.

On the one hand, California Governor Jerry Brown talks a good game on climate. Today, he joined 500 scientists to send a unified message about the changing climate. A couple of weeks ago, he was lamenting that “It doesn’t look like the people who are in charge are going to do what it takes to really slow down this climate change.”

On the other hand, he’s rushing to embrace the anticipated fracking boom of California’s Monterey Shale – an estimated 2/3 of all of the untapped oil in the United States. We’re not talking fracking for natural gas, which arguably has half the carbon emissions of coal. Instead, Brown wants to frack California for oil. Not just any oil, but dirty heavy sour crude oil as carbon-intensive as the Canadian tarsands.

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And here’s what Gov. Brown has to say about California’s fracked up fossil fuels:

they’re a fabulous economic opportunity. He wants to balance his concern about climate change with “what could be a fabulous opportunity.” And he’s not at all interested in joining the fight for an oil severance tax.”The fossil fuel deposits in California are incredible, the potential is extraordinary,” Brown has said in calling for California to look at fracking.

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